A new shell for Shelley?

During a beach trip back in July, we let Cera buy a hermit crab. She named her Sandy (because apparently Cera can tell the difference between male and female hermit crabs), and she certainly has lived up to her billing as a “hermit,” spending hour upon hour cooped up in her shell.

At first we thought she might be depressed, so we bought Sandy a companion, also a girl, which Cera dubbed Shelley. It didn’t take long for hermit crab No. 2 to live up to her given name, as she switched shells the day that we got her, into one that was way too big but obviously more attractive than the one she came in. Personally, I think Shelley may be a little vain.

Anyway, the kids are fascinated by their new pets and will actually sit and watch them do absolutely nothing. They’re pretty familiar with their hermit crabs’ daily patterns – eat, drink, rest, occasionally work their way up the cool climbing wall we put in their tank, then rest some more – so when something seems a bit off, they’re eager to report it to Jerry and me.

That leads us to a few weeks ago, when Shelley suddenly started burying herself in the sand. According to what I could find on the Internet, this could mean one of three things:

Shelley is cold and trying to get warm.

Shelley is pregnant.

Shelley is getting ready to molt.

Since she’s also been examining the bigger shells in the tank, we’re going to go with option 3. So we’ve been talking a lot about Shelley moving into a new shell and what it means to molt.

Anthony must be listening because we had this conversation tonight at the grocery store: